The Competitive Advantage Of A Clear Culture

I have always been a huge believer in the value of mentorship and probably the most exciting aspect of the recent round of funding for 360 is that throughout the process we have had access to such incredible people.

One of our new investors is Bruce Croxon, best-known these days for being one of the dragons on the CBC show Dragon’s Den, but well-known in the tech community as the founder of LavaLife and a partner in Round13 Capital. Bruce was in town on Monday of this week to join a panel of judges for the Ignite Durham Pitch Night. Bruce is a massive believer in teamwork and a defined company culture and before the big event, we had some time to sit and chat about culture.

Naturally, I recommend watching the whole video (5:47 total), but if you prefer to hack, here are some of the key takeaways:

What made LavaLife successful “we had great tech and certainly we were lucky but what it really came down to is putting time into organizational development”.

Vision is having the discipline to sit down and do a plan of where you want to be and then at the start of every year, having the discipline to turn that plan into actual action.

Your company values should be a road map where new team members are able to say “I understand what teamwork really is…” because you have defined it.

A clear company culture really helps to weed out the wrong people.

When your company is on an upswing, EVERYONE’s a team player. Tough times bring out the truth.

Good culture has ALWAYS been a competitive advantage; people are just starting to really recognize and be able to quantify the value of it now.